Washington, DC
The Santa Fe Institute bills itself as the center of the intellectual universe for research in complex systems, be they in physics, biology or social science. I participated in the Institutes's seminar here today on Conflict, Creativity and Complexity co-sponsored by the Chief of Naval Operations.
We were joined by author Richard Rhodes, the incomparable physicist Murray Gell-Mann and a host of leading scholars from the far corners of the complexity sciences. I was most intrigued by a presentation from Dean Simonton of UC Davis on creativity development as an evolutionary process.
Dr. Simonton says there are five sets of factors spurring the evolution of creative people: cognition, individual differences, developmental antecedents, creative careers and sociocultural phenomena. Two of these factors most interested me.
In cognitive terms, Simonton says that creative people make associations with stimuli further out in terms of remoteness from that stimuli. In other words, they let the stimuli take them to places most people can't imagine. He added that while subject-matter experts have disciplined focusing skills, creative people excel at defocused attention. They pay attention to things that can seem undisciplined and irrelevant, but that sometimes produce pure genius.
As for sociocultural considerations, Simonton touts the relative creative advantages of political and cultural fragmentation if not some measure of civil conflict. Accordingly, the Golden Age of Greece and the Florentine Republic - abundant with creativity - were comprised of many diverse, competing power sources that drove heterogeneity. He added that 17th and 18th Century Germany produced so many great composers because of the agendas of its own competing princes. Simonton commented on his own research showing positive correlations between Japan's historic cycles of openness and subsequent rounds of creative productivity. On the other hand, he asserts that creativity subsides when a single political order ascends and drives the culture toward homogeneity. Fascists may make the trains run on time, but don't expect their citizens to flourish creatively.
Much more to come from the Santa Fe Institute in the years ahead.
The Santa Fe Institute bills itself as the center of the intellectual universe for research in complex systems, be they in physics, biology or social science. I participated in the Institutes's seminar here today on Conflict, Creativity and Complexity co-sponsored by the Chief of Naval Operations.
We were joined by author Richard Rhodes, the incomparable physicist Murray Gell-Mann and a host of leading scholars from the far corners of the complexity sciences. I was most intrigued by a presentation from Dean Simonton of UC Davis on creativity development as an evolutionary process.
Dr. Simonton says there are five sets of factors spurring the evolution of creative people: cognition, individual differences, developmental antecedents, creative careers and sociocultural phenomena. Two of these factors most interested me.
In cognitive terms, Simonton says that creative people make associations with stimuli further out in terms of remoteness from that stimuli. In other words, they let the stimuli take them to places most people can't imagine. He added that while subject-matter experts have disciplined focusing skills, creative people excel at defocused attention. They pay attention to things that can seem undisciplined and irrelevant, but that sometimes produce pure genius.
As for sociocultural considerations, Simonton touts the relative creative advantages of political and cultural fragmentation if not some measure of civil conflict. Accordingly, the Golden Age of Greece and the Florentine Republic - abundant with creativity - were comprised of many diverse, competing power sources that drove heterogeneity. He added that 17th and 18th Century Germany produced so many great composers because of the agendas of its own competing princes. Simonton commented on his own research showing positive correlations between Japan's historic cycles of openness and subsequent rounds of creative productivity. On the other hand, he asserts that creativity subsides when a single political order ascends and drives the culture toward homogeneity. Fascists may make the trains run on time, but don't expect their citizens to flourish creatively.
Much more to come from the Santa Fe Institute in the years ahead.